I Dont Like The Quiet
by FallenGriffin
Summary: Kiba was not stupid. Everyone thought he was. He was just a bit rash sometimes. Whatever pairing you choose to see. Maybe Ino/Kiba Ino/Shika or Hina/Kiba


Kiba glared.

At what?

He was glaring at the death he knew was soon to come.

He wasn't stupid, despite what people might say.

In fact, he was actually quite smart. Just because he often acted rashly people assumed he was stupid. He just had a little problem with his temper was all. Kiba had a very simple mind. In no way was he stupid because of it, he just didn't read to deeply into things.

He was going to die.

He knew and accepted this the second he pulled the kunai from his belt and stabbed it into his gut. He could be optimistic, say that the wound wouldn't be that bad. Kiba was not optimistic. He was smart. The calculation of how much blood he would lose was easy enough. A lot was the answer. Akamaru, if he lived, would get over Kiba's death.

It was going to hurt.

As the sound nin merged his body with Kiba's, Kiba accepted this fact. He lifted the kunai high, as not to chicken out.

* * *

Ino sat at the counter of her families flower shop. It was never busy, not unless someone had died or was severely injured. Then everyone came to buy flowers. _Maybe someone will die on this mission that they never asked ME to go on._ She thought bitterly.

She couldn't help but be jealouse, after all she was stuck at the flower shop while they were off rescuing Sasuke.

_Hmph, it'd serve them right._

* * *

As Kiba brought the kunai down, the yell of Sakon sounded duly in his ear. The outside sounds of the world had become faint. At first Kiba felt nothing, then he felt the pain.

He couldn't even hear his own screams. What a pity, he figured they must have rivaled that of Ino the banshees.

It hurt. Hell it hurt. Like he had spilled boiling water, no matter how hard you try to squirm away from the liquid you can't.

He bit his lip to stop screaming. The demon who was intertwined with Kiba realized what was happening. He attempted to free himself.

"No you don't," Kiba grunted. "This hurts to bad to be a waste."

As he said that, he realized that could have been the opportunity for life. A fork in the road, yet it was so covered by underbrush he had failed to notice it.

No turning back.

Kiba aimed his kunai at a more fatal spot this time.

His screams didn't last long, but he entirely certain they were the loudest anyone ever would have heard had anyone been there to hear.

* * *

Something roused Ino from the sleep she had accidentally fallen into. She had been woken by an odd howling of dogs. _Stupid mutts,_ she thought. Then the bell to the little shop rang. In walked Sakura. Ino was about to insult her but decided against it when she saw the worried look on the pinkets face.

"You're worried about them aren't you?" Ino said, in a rare moment of sympathy. Sakura simply nodded with a meek smile on her face.

"Don't be, Shikamaru can take care of himself fine and Choji can to long as he has some reason. You know Naruto better than I do, but I figure he will be fine. Neji is a child prodigy and a year older than the rest of them. Kiba…" Ino stopped there, she knew little about Kiba. She always supposed he could be fun to hang out with, but they never did considering they were on different teams and had different goals.

"I'm sure they will all come back fine. If you worry to much you will get wrinkles in your bill board brow." Ino said, not wanting to soil her reputation as Sakura hater.

* * *

Kiba felt his eyesight drifting. He took a look at the dead body lying beside him. He hoped it would make his feel better about his dying. It didn't. So what if he killed the bad guy? He was dying and Akamaru looked pretty far dead from were he sat.

Kiba wondered if he would even make it back to the leaf village before his died completely. Before he ran out of blood, or general will to live. Maybe someone would come to his rescue. Kiba liked that thought, but doubted it would actually happen. The chances of him being rescued were slim to none. Both Neji and Choji had high chances of being rescued, Shikamaru to. Naruto Kiba didn't know. All he saw was the boy run off before being blasted into the trench.

Kiba spat some blood out of his mouth. It was gross. Some people like the taste of blood, Kiba included, but it was different when you had coughed large amounts from the wound in your lungs or vomited it from the wound in your stomach.

Kiba had many wounds. Some from fighting, but most were self inflicted. His plan had worked though, that was a plus side. He had a deep wound in his stomach, it had not been enough to kill Sakon so Kiba had stabbed himself several times in the lungs. He had missed his heart by mere inches. Then, while Sakon had been distracted her had cut the throat of the demon. That succesfuly killed it and its body has freed itself from Kibas. _Good thing to, it would be a weird way to be buried in._

Kiba wondered if death would be quiet. He hoped not, he couldn't stand much more of the quiet. It was so foreboding, almost mocking him. No matter how hard he yelled or screamed, the quiet returned just as before.

Kiba waited. If he died it wouldn't be long now, if he was rescued it had to happen now or never. So he new that soon something would happen.

* * *

Ino was tracing faces in the dust on the counter top. Shikamaru, Choji, Naruto, Neji, and Kiba. She didn't know why. She supposed that Sakura's worrying had rubbed off on her. She quickly got a wet rag and dusted the counter off as she heard the soft tingling of the chimes on the door. It was Hinata.

Hinata was ridiculously shy, so when the teams would spar together she would say little to nothing. Ino didn't know her other that on the fellow classmate sense. After a moment Ino recognized the worried look on her face. Ino made a vow to hang out with the girl more. After all, they were both strong female ninja's and there were not many of those.

"Hey Hinata. I have to arrange some flowers in the back, you can come if you would like." Ino said, she was really a nice person after all. She was just a bit vain.

"U-um, s-sure…thanks I-Ino." The girl said, stuttering mildly, it had gotten better over the years but not by much.

Ino walked to the back of the shop and motioned Hinata to follow her. The back of the shop had several work counters covered with pretty glass vases and colorful flowers. There were also several piles of green fernlike plants. Over to the back of the back room were several flower plants, almost like a mini greenhouse for those flowers that died to quickly to keep off the plant. Ino slipped on a pair of light weight gloves and got to work arranging purple flowers in a vase that was small at the bottom but fanned out at the top.

"Are you worried about them?" Ino said quietly, prompting the other girl to talk. After a few moments of saying nothing Hinata spoke.

"Y-yes…I'm worried about Kiba, he just a-acts so rashly at times…m-me and Shino w-work together to keep him from getting hurt while he attacks b-but…" Hinata sniffed, refusing to cry.

"It will be alright Hinata. I'm sure nothing will happen. Plus the sand siblings were just sent in as reinforcements." Ino said with a glance towards Hinata. The flower arrangement looked surprisingly like Hinata, for it was made of many whites and purples.

"It will be alright…." She said more to herself this time.

* * *

Kiba wondered why there was a cat standing over him. Then he passed out.

* * *

"They're back!!" Sakura yelled into the flower shop before running In the direction of the hospital.

Ino dropped what she was doing. She and Hinata had been talking for the past half hour. Hinata mostly talked about Kiba and Ino had not interrupted since it was such a rare thing for the girl to talk anyway. When Sakura yelled those word both Hinata and Ino were out the door and running in a moment. As they saw everyone walking to the hospital they gasped. Lee, Gaara, Temari, Kankuro and Shikamaru were the only walking ones. Ino saw only a glimpse of four makeshift stretchers. Ino ran up to Shikamaru as fast as she could and hugged him. He pretended not to notice the tears in her eyes. Lady Tsunada ran into the hospital, followed by Shizune.

"Is it that bad?" Ino choked out. Shikamaru nodded.

Ino looked at the others. Everyone else looked remotely fine. Physically. The only sand sibling that looked damaged at all was Kankuro. Ino went over to him, not bothering to be shy.

"You are covered in blood, why aren't they treating you?" She asked, curiously.

"Its not my blood." He said faintly, still shocked from finding the dog boy so injured. "It's the mutts."

At first Ino didn't understand. Then she got it. Kiba. Ino looked over at Hinata who had overheard the conversation. Ino rushed over to comfort the now weeping girl.

* * *

It was several hours later, Ino was waiting in the hospital hallway with Hinata. She had already seen Choji, and Shikamaru was not badly injured. She was waiting with Hinata to go see Kiba. They still didn't know his condition. Tsunada walked out of his room and walked over to Shizune. The to began to talk in hushed voices. Ino listened and could hear fine though.

"I don't know, he lost a lot of blood. It's surprising because normally I could heal wounds like that fine…"

"Tsunada, do you mean to tell me that he has not been healed?"

"I tried best I could but the wounds don't seem to want to heal…I finally resorted to just sewing them together to keep his insides from falling out."

"Do you think he will recover?"

"To be frank, no."

That last statement stuck in Ino's mind. Both Choji and Neji had horrible wounds done by jutsu's, but Kiba's simple stab wounds may kill him. The idea was too much.

"You may go visit him now girls, just don't let him move." Tsunada said with a faint smile, but Ino saw past it.

The door to his room opened, Kiba looked up to see if it was another healer. He was sick of them poking and prodding him. It was Hinata and Ino. Kiba smiled at his teammate, and at the other girl he didn't know as well. His shirt was off and his wounds were exposed for anyone to see. Tsunada said for the time being they needed to be left uncovered. Almost as soon as Hinata entered she turned pale and began to cry.

"I-I'm so-sorry I-I j-just can't…." She said and ran out of the room. Kiba sighed, she had always bean slightly squeamish around injuries.

He noticed the other girl still stood, paralyzed.

"Gross isn't it?"

* * *

As Hinata ran out of the room, into resisted the urge to. Kiba's wounds were jagged and foreboding. Ino just bit her lip and walked to stand beside him. If Hinata couldn't keep him company someone should. No one deserved to die alone. _Bad Ino, you don't know he will die._

"N-no…" Great now she sounded like Hinata

"So, why aren't you visiting your teammates?" Said the injured boy.

"I already did. Choji needs rest and Shikamaru is not in a talking mood. I figured you might want some company." Ino said, surprised at how calm she was.

"Yeah, thanks its-" He was cut off by a fit of coughing. Red blood came to rest on his lips. Ino shuddered and handed him a tissue.

"Sorry about that, you can go. I wont last much longer anyway." He said with a small attempt at a shrug.

"You don't know that." Ino said, suddenly fighting the urge to cry.

"Oh I do, I am and amazing fortune teller." He joked with a meek smile. "No, not really. I just like to speculate. I have already speculated your life. In about ten minutes you are going to walk out of here, perhaps cry a little for the dead me you never really knew. Maybe you will cry a lot. You will comfort Hinata. You two will grow older, gradually you will forget about your feud with Sakura and become friends again. You will date, its no secret you're gorgeous, get your heart broken. Grow older, maybe get married, have kids. Help your kids grow. Die." He shrugged again.

"But maybe I'm wrong about everything." He said. Ino was crying freely now.

"I'm sorry…I…I….I'm sorry no one was there…I'm sorry…." Ino said, tears dripping off her nose and onto the bedspread.

Ino took the faintly bloody hand of the boy she never really knew, and cried. Cried for everyone that was hurt, cried for his willingness to just submit to death.

* * *

((A/N: If you stop now you can say that Kiba lived and then let your imagination run wild))

* * *

Ino was dressed entirely in black. It was not her usual showy outfit. In fact it showed no skin at all. It was a long sleeved plain black dress that went don't to her knees, she wore leggings under it for it was cold outside. Her hair was down and she had a black ribbon on. She wondered if she looked depressing, she sure felt it.

She walked outside to meet Hinata who was also dressed in black. She wore a black dress also, but hers touched the ground. Her hair was pulled back in a black ribbon. Ino took the girls arm and the two walked in the direction of the funeral.

As they approached, Ino saw all the other ninja's. Ino wanted Kiba to jump out at her and yell 'surprise! It was all a joke.' But she knew he wouldn't. She had been there when he had fianly slipped away.

It was anticlimactic, not dramatic in any way. He didn't say anything with his dying breath. He just died. A few moments after he speculated her future he said, 'don't stop talking, I hate the quiet' she was surprised but did just that. It was odd because Shikamaru always told her to be quiet. She had rambled on about anything that came to her mind for about then minuted before she accepted he was not breathing. She had relized it a minute of so after she started rambling on that he had died, but she refused to accept it until his hand began to grow cold. She then stumbled out of the hospital room, crying her eyes out and she had said only one thing to anyone.

"He was right…I was wrong." She said that and lady Tsunada and Shizune rushed into his room. All they saw that was different from when they had left was Kiba was no longer breathing heavily and the sheets were tearstained.

Hinata had not needed anyone to tell her, she just guessed from the look on Ino's face and the tears that dripped from her chin. Ino ran all the way to the training grounds. It was empty there. She sat and cried for the friend that was taken from her as soon as there friendship was born.

Ino knew she would never see his face, he would never make another crude joke, and he would never again call her gorgeous. Because he, as much as it pained her to accept it.

Kiba of the Inuzuka clan was dead.

And he had died with Ino by his side.


End file.
